PSYC 3006

The PowerPoints/lectures are generally unhelpful, but the textbook is pretty good at explaining things. Do the optional homework if you want to do well on the test.

If you have the option to take 3006 with Smyth, do it, he's the best professor for this class. Keep up with the reading if you want to get all of the clicker questions right, but even without reading you can get most of them. Definitely do all of the optional homework before the tests and you'll do well.

This class has lived up to what I expected. Professor Smyth is a fair professor—he does talk slow, so class can feel a bit boring. However, he does teach everything, and the exams generally are fair and accurate to what we went over in class. He makes an effort to learn every student's name, and is very accommodating if you ever need to meet with him, which is so nice and something not many professors do in big lectures. The class format (if you're taking this as a TuTh class) is an hour and fifteen of lecture, a ten minute break, and then fifty minutes of lab. So definitely not the most traditional class format. The lecture is taught by Smyth and focuses on research methods, statistical analysis, etc. The lab is taught by graduate TAs and is all using R. I will say that the lab was the least enjoyable but the easiest part of this class. You don't even need to write basically any code at all—it's all just running premade scripts and doing one easy worksheet a week. The lab class time consists of going through the scripts and it's really boring, but again not hard. For grading, your lab grade is just attendance and worksheets, and your lecture grade is 3 tests + a final. There are daily clickers that can replace your lowest test grade and opportunities for bonus points in the class. If I have any advice it's to take this class the semester after 2005 so the information is fresh in your mind, and also do well on the clickers. Also worth noting- I took this the semester of COVID-19, and Smyth has been accommodating and decided to make the final exam open-note.